Summary

Web-Enabled Power Monitoring for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Building Management Systems for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses: Networked Loads vs. No Monitoring

Equipment that enables small and medium-sized businesses to monitor energy use from the web.

Synopsis:

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have clearly identified installed cost as the primary barrier to improved energy management. These customers have limited resources, are very bottom line oriented, have near term outlooks, and unable to disrupt their business for extended periods.

Currently developed web-enabled power and energy monitoring solutions have recognized these barriers. Monitoring systems are available that can connect to a wide range of equipment including utility meters and load panels, as well as be able to integrate with existing equipment such as building energy management systems, lighting controls, or HVAC systems. A software system is necessary to aggregate and display monitoring information in a format that is useful to a building or business manager. This software may be local or cloud-based. Local software may be purchased, customized, or designed by on-site staff. Most cloud based system providers impose a monthly subscription fee.

Some utilities (BC Hydro, PG&E, and Consumer's Power in Michigan) offer free energy monitoring and targeting services to their small and mid-sized commercial customers. Enerati offers an internet connected gateway that uploads live data to the cloud. The price for a standard monitoring kit (which provides energy use data for an entire business or building) is $189. Each kit can be expanded by up to nine wireless sensors that monitor outlets, panels, or gas meters. Enerati offers three subscription plans, with the lowest cost one starting at $3 per month. Companies such as Noesis offer free analytical and display software with charges levied for additional services.

Advanced analytics provide benchmarks, establish baseline models, propose energy and cost savings opportunities, and verify energy use reductions. The monitoring approach should be able to be absorbed into a future building automation or energy management control system (see Technology #347).

Simple Payback is one tool used to estimate the cost-effectiveness of a proposed investment, such as the investment in an energy efficient technology. Simple payback indicates how many years it will take for the initial investment to "pay itself back." The basic formula for calculating a simple payback is:

Simple Payback = Incremental First Cost / Annual Savings

The Incremental Cost is determined by subtracting the Baseline First Cost from the Measure First Cost.

For New Construction, the Baseline First Cost is the cost to purchase the standard practice technology. The Measure First Cost is the cost of the alternative, more energy efficienct technology. Installation costs are not included, as it is assumed that installation costs are approximately the same for the Baseline and the Emerging Technology.

For Retrofit scenarios, the Baseline First Cost is $0, since the baseline scenario is to leave the existing equipment in place. The Emerging Technology First Cost is the Measure First Cost plus Installation Cost (the cost of the replacement technology, plus the labor cost to install it). Retrofit scenarios generally have a higher First Cost and longer Simple Paybacks than New Construction scenarios.

Simple Paybacks are called "simple" because they do not include details such as the time value of money or inflation, and often do not include operations and maintenance (O&M) costs or end-of-life disposal costs. However, they can still provide a powerful tool for a quick assessment of a proposed measure. These paybacks are rough estimates based upon best available data, and should be treated with caution. For major financial decisions, it is suggested that a full Lifecycle Cost Analysis be performed which includes the unique details of your situation.

The energy savings estimates are based upon an electric rate of $.09/kWh, and are calculated by comparing the range of estimated energy savings to the baseline energy use. For most technologies, this results in "Typical," "Fast" and "Slow" payback estimates, corresponding with the "Typical," "High" and "Low" estimates of energy savings, respectively.

Usual challenges, especially quantifiable and reliable savings, but there are some powerful innovations happening here that show promise.

Other monitoring approaches mentioned incorporate these features...will likely have overlap in technologies.

Synopsis:

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) have clearly identified installed cost as the primary barrier to improved energy management. These customers have limited resources, are very bottom line oriented, have near term outlooks, and unable to disrupt their business for extended periods.

Currently developed web-enabled power and energy monitoring solutions have recognized these barriers. Monitoring systems are available that can connect to a wide range of equipment including utility meters and load panels, as well as be able to integrate with existing equipment such as building energy management systems, lighting controls, or HVAC systems. A software system is necessary to aggregate and display monitoring information in a format that is useful to a building or business manager. This software may be local or cloud-based. Local software may be purchased, customized, or designed by on-site staff. Most cloud based system providers impose a monthly subscription fee.

Some utilities (BC Hydro, PG&E, and Consumer's Power in Michigan) offer free energy monitoring and targeting services to their small and mid-sized commercial customers. Enerati offers an internet connected gateway that uploads live data to the cloud. The price for a standard monitoring kit (which provides energy use data for an entire business or building) is $189. Each kit can be expanded by up to nine wireless sensors that monitor outlets, panels, or gas meters. Enerati offers three subscription plans, with the lowest cost one starting at $3 per month. Companies such as Noesis offer free analytical and display software with charges levied for additional services.

Advanced analytics provide benchmarks, establish baseline models, propose energy and cost savings opportunities, and verify energy use reductions. The monitoring approach should be able to be absorbed into a future building automation or energy management control system (see Technology #347).

The EPA Energy Star buildings database shows an on-site energy use of 59.81 kBtu/ft-2 for medium sized, mixed use buildings in a Western WA and OR climate zone for space heating, cooling, lighting, ventilation, and miscellaneous building loads. Heating is generally provided by natural gas---for this analysis, gas heat was converted to electrical energy use through multiplying by 0.8 (furnace efficiency) and then dividing by 2.5 which is an assumed heat pump efficiency. This yields a heating load of about 120,000 kWh/year (rounded up from 116,370). To this is added the remaining electricity load of 333,430 kWh/year to yield a total building energy use of 453,430 kWh/year (or 11.33 kWh/sf-year for a 40,000 ft-2 building). A 3% total annual energy savings would equal 13,600 kWh/year.

Absent real-time energy monitoring, business or building energy managers must rely upon monthly utility billing data. Aggregated data does not allow for building, department, or division comparisons. It doesn't identify areas for improvement or suggest actionable energy savings approaches, and may not be useful in selling energy efficiency projects to top management. The utility data may or may not provide comparisons with historical energy use data.

Manufacturer's Energy Savings Claims:

"Typical" Savings: 10%Savings Range: From 1% to 30%

Comments:

Energy monitoring equipment ranges from simple out-of-the box and easy to install electrical sub metering equipment (that allows for an understanding of energy consumption by panel, circuit, or building area) to wireless sensors with a commercial cloud-based energy analytics platform. The goal is not monitoring for the sake of monitoring. The goal is to obtain accurate information on usage patterns that provide actionable information. Increased awareness may lead to turning parking lot lights off at night, switching off power to unoccupied areas, reducing peak demands, or taking advantage of time-of-day rates. Some vendors claim that monitoring alone can reduce energy consumption by up to 10% (some even say up to 30%).

Comments:

Energy Use of an Emerging Technology is based upon the following algorithm.

Baseline Energy Use - (Baseline Energy Use * Best Estimate of Energy Savings (either Typical savings OR the high range of savings.))

Comments:

This represents the energy use of the baseline 40,000 ft-2 Energy Star mixed use building located in a Western WA and OR climate zone less a 3% savings in annual energy use due to the availability of web-enabled power monitoring data. The 3% is given as a percentage of the total building energy use.

Comments:

Enerati offers an internet connected gateway that uploads live data to the cloud. The price for a standard monitoring kit (which provides energy use data for an entire business or building) is $189. Installation takes about one hour. Enrati combines low cost wireless sensors with a commercial level cloud based energy management platform. Each kit can be expanded by up to nine wireless sensors that monitor outlets, panels, or gas meters. Enerati offers three subscription plans, with the lowest cost one starting at $3 per month. The total installed cost is estimated at $189 kit + $75 installation + 9 x $75 each for wireless sensors = $939.

Cost Effectiveness:

Cost Effectiveness is calculated using baseline energy use, best estimate of typical energy savings, and first cost. It does not account for factors such as impacts on O&M costs (which could be significant if product life is greatly extended) or savings of non-electric fuels such as natural gas. Actual overall cost effectiveness could be significantly different based on these other factors.

Comments:

The simple payback is "immediate" for end users when the energy monitoring is provided by the utility or a company like Noesis (which has adopted a "freemium" model). Noesis makes software applications free with charges for additional services. Other companies like Serious Energy watch energy use down to the circuit level in commercial and apartment buildings while providing web-based displays for owner/operators. Serious Energy's business plan is to serve as an energy service company, with the ability to finance efficiency projects at no costs to the owners while paying itself off through energy savings.

Detailed Description:

This emerging technology employs monitoring equipment that enables energy use data to be accessed and viewed from the web. The ultimate goal is to enable and empower small business owners to identify and ultimately implement energy savings opportunities. Energy management systems are necessary (see Technology #347) if the owner wishes to modify schedules or change operating setpoints remotely.

Some monitoring equipment packages allow owners to track electrical energy use, natural gas use, and water use. Analytics may include the display of energy use trends, comparisons with similar buildings, and may include greenhouse gas emissions estimates. Monitoring and analytics packages have a wide variety of display capabilities and the most difficult task for small businesses may be in identifying the equipment vendor that best meets their information needs.

End User Drawbacks:

Small- to medium-sized businesses have clearly identified the installed cost as the primary barrier. Target customers have limited resources, are very bottom-line oriented, have near-term outlooks, and are unable to disrupt their business for extended periods while the system is being installed. Currently available low-cost monitoring solutions targeted to these customers have recognized these barriers.

Operations and Maintenance Costs:

No information available.

Effective Life:

Comments:

The effective life for the hardware will be 10 to 15 years and for the software will be 5 years due to obsolescence.

Zones:

Load Shape:

Performance Trajectory:

Gradual improvement. Adoption of the technology will increase when incentives and programmatic information become available.

Cost Trajectory:

Gradual decrease. The cost will go down as sales volume increases due to increased adoption of the technology.

Product Supply and Installation Risk:

There is no risk of a shortage. There are plenty of products available from multiple vendors.

Technical Dominance:

Direct digital control systems (DDC) are a competing technology that has been in use for many years and can perform the same functions as this technology. DDC is more expensive and is consequesntly seldom used for the small to medium buildings. The bigger the building is, the more likely it is that a DDC system may be used instead of this technology.

Target Customer:

Building owners or operators are the key users and potential purchasers. Architects, engineers, and contractors are the key specifiers.

Market Channels:

Enterprise management systems providers sell this technology. We do not see any barriers to sales.

Regulatory Issues:

There are no known code, standard or regulation issues.

Other risks and barriers:

The main barrier is a lack of uniform guidelines for specifiers to make implementation easy and uniform from project to project.

Completed:

12/6/2012 3:25:32 PM by AngelaP

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